The reason why I chose this topic for my thesis is that from 2005 to 2008 I attended the Italian school of Asmara and graduated from the Liceo Scientifico “G. Marconi”.

My father, a professor of Italian, was nominated in 2004 for a five-year post to teach at the Lower Secondary School of Asmara, and I decided to go with him. I experienced a significant and important “change of life”, since I found myself in a new Country, a new school and with new classmates. In fact, in my class, there were only two Italian students, while the rest were Eritreans.

From an educational point of view, the subjects such as Italian, philosophy or history were taught in a different way, because the command of the Italian language for Eritrean students wasn’t like the one of a native speaker. Contrary to that, the study of foreign languages such as English, French, Spanish and Arabic was studied more in depth. English in particular, because along with Tigrinya and Italian, it is one of the languages spoken in everyday life.

Relating with my classmates was not so easy, especially at the beginning, because they grew up in another reality. Their habits, traditions, mentality are very different from ours. I was particularly impressed by the relationship with adults, since they are disciplined and fear their parents. In the Eritrean society the figure of the father is very authoritarian.

The three years I spent there helped me grow up. It’s been the most significant experience of my life until now. I will never forget it.